500 Osaka Locations Become a Quest & G-SHOCK Tests Durability in the Metaverse (Sep 5, 2025)
Here is our roundup of notable corporate oshikatsu (fan support activities) marketing and fan business news from the week of August 29 to September 4, 2025.
This Week’s Highlights
This was a week in which companies stepped directly into the everyday routines and pathways of fans.
In Osaka, the urban festival “RIZE3x Expo”—hosted by 8ships and planned and operated by 8ships together with the Suntory Group’s Good Measure—got underway. Set across 500 locations throughout Osaka Prefecture, the event brought together 16 participating companies and municipalities, including Sanrio and Toei Animation. Meanwhile, Casio Computer entered the metaverse platform “The Sandbox” with its “G-SHOCK” brand, announcing that it would open a dedicated area on September 24 where users could experience simulated durability tests.
Morinaga & Co. commercialized a limited-edition package for its “in Jelly” brand inspired by handmade good-luck charms (omamori) that fans had started crafting on their own. Bookstore chain Yurindo sold out 5,000 sketchbooks in five minutes through its official YouTube channel, Yurindo Shika Shiranai Sekai (The World Only Yurindo Knows), which does not even aim to sell products. And Shiseido expanded a collaboration with musician Sheena Ringo from a single appearance in a music video into a full-scale campaign.
- 500 locations
- Cultural sites and shopping streets across Osaka serving as stages for RIZE3x Expo
- 5,000 copies
- Sketchbooks sold out in 5 minutes during a Yurindo YouTube livestream
- 1.3M+ views
- Music video views for Asahi Soft Drinks' collaboration band IKUSHAMO
- 300,000 yen
- Grant per selected work in the Sanrio Creator Performance Awards on VRChat
Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article
Cities and the Metaverse Became Brand Experience Venues
8ships x Suntory’s “Good Measure” x Sanrio & Toei Animation — Turning the Streets of Osaka into a Quest Stage
The urban festival “RIZE3x Expo” began in Osaka on August 30. Hosted by 8ships and planned and operated jointly by 8ships and the Suntory Group’s Good Measure, the festival used 500 cultural properties and shopping districts (shotengai) across Osaka Prefecture as its stage, turning the entire city into a participatory quest. Running through September 21, the initiative involved 16 companies and local governments—including Sanrio and Toei Animation—alongside 14 educational institutions such as universities and vocational schools. Participants used a dedicated app to clear missions and collect badges, which they could exchange for limited-edition merchandise or eligibility to attend VIP events (Time Out Tokyo (in Japanese)).
Sanrio also announced that it would hold the “Sanrio Virtual Festival,” where visitors experience its characters’ world through VR goggles, for two days only on September 13 and 14 in a special room inside the main venue building.
Lab Note: The key point here is that the organizers did not build a 500-location footprint on their own; instead, they borrowed existing cultural properties and shopping streets as their stage. Through the game-like mechanic of earning badges, walking around town itself became a participatory experience. For municipalities and commercial facilities that already hold regional tourism resources, the idea of building a mechanism that encourages people to travel from spot to spot before inviting Intellectual Property (IP) partners in offers a useful model.
Casio Computer x The Sandbox — Letting Users Experience “G-SHOCK” Durability in the Metaverse
Starting September 3, Casio Computer launched sales of a limited-edition avatar collection for “G-SHOCK” called “G-SHOCK Droid.” The sales venue was “The Sandbox,” a Web3 gaming metaverse platform. Casio announced that it would open a dedicated area called “G-SHOCK CITY” on September 24, where users could experience the brand’s history and simulated durability tests. By recreating actual testing conditions—such as drops, impacts, and water submersion—at a high difficulty level, Casio planned to turn the experience into a game where players could personally feel the watches’ “unbreakable structure.” The company also rolled out additional NFT gear to combine with the avatars (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
This announcement came amid a wave of major brands entering the metaverse, including Gucci, Lacoste, and Shibuya 109.
Lab Note: What is new here is translating a functional value—durability—into a form people can feel while playing. Instead of making users read a specification sheet, the brand lets them learn about the product’s toughness inside a game where failure is part of the fun. The harder it is for an industry to communicate functional appeals through text alone, the more room there is to use the metaverse as an “experiential instruction manual.”
Fan Posts and Band Activities Grew into Official Brand Projects
Asahi Soft Drinks x IKUSHAMO — The “Reality of Effort” Behind a Collaboration Band Won Fan Support
Starting August 21, Asahi Soft Drinks released a compilation video titled Minna no! Sumikiru Shunkan The MOVIE (Everyone’s! Clear Moment The MOVIE), summarizing its 2025 initiatives for the carbonated beverage “Mitsuya Cider.” At the center of the video was “IKUSHAMO,” a collaboration band formed in March between actress and singer Erika Ikuta and the three-piece rock band SHISHAMO. The video looked back on the entire process, from filming commercials to band rehearsals and live events. Ikuta bought a new guitar specifically for the commercial shoot and practiced for about a month. Views of the collaboration music video had surpassed 1.3 million (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
On March 28, celebrated as “Mitsuya Day” (a wordplay on 3/28 in Japanese), a special collaboration music video was also released, and the song was made available on music streaming services.
Lab Note: By showing everything from the band’s formation to the rehearsal process, the campaign generated a persuasiveness that a standalone TV commercial cannot achieve. Rather than showing only the finished performance, it let audiences follow the effort required to get there. Instead of letting the impact of hiring talent end with a fleeting commercial, turning the practice period itself into content is an approach that other beverage and food brands can also apply.
Morinaga & Co. “in Jelly” — Fan Posts of Handmade Good-Luck Charms Gave Birth to Official Packaging
In December 2024, Morinaga & Co. released a limited-time special package from its “in Jelly” brand called “in Jelly Energy (Win).” The catalyst was a trend that emerged organically around 2023, in which everyday consumers began posting photos of handmade felt good-luck charms (omamori) styled as “Win Jelly” (adding a “W” to “in”). Responding to the warm reception, the company introduced instructions on how to make the charms on its official social media accounts in December 2023, and distributed miniature “Win” keychains at retail stores in July 2024. What started as a consumer-driven expression ultimately developed into an official limited-edition product (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
A representative from the company’s marketing division looked back on the project, noting how happy they felt to see the brand image they had been promoting brought to life by customers themselves.
Lab Note: What matters here is that this began not as a company-orchestrated campaign, but from consumers’ voluntary creative work. Rather than merely capitalizing on social media buzz once and moving on, Morinaga made it official step by step: sharing official crafting instructions, handing out keychains, and finally launching limited-edition packaging. As discussed in Fundamentals of Fan Marketing, when a company does not rush to seize control, it ends up preserving the brand’s approachability.
- 01Organic Fan Creation (From ~2023)Consumers spontaneously craft and post handmade felt "Win Jelly" good-luck charms on social media
- 02Official Social Media Amplification (Dec 2023)Morinaga responds to the buzz by sharing official crafting instructions on its social channels
- 03In-Store Novelty Distribution (Jul 2024)The brand distributes miniature "Win" keychains at retail storefronts
- 04Limited-Edition Commercial Release (Dec 2024)Morinaga launches the official "in Jelly Energy (Win)" special package nationwide
Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article
Anniversary Projects Turned into Mechanisms for Involving Fans
Unagi Pie Factory 20th Anniversary — Open-Call Parfaits and Age-Linked Campaigns
The “Unagi Pie Factory,” operated by confectionery maker Unagi Pie Honpo, celebrated the 20th anniversary of its opening in 2025. Total cumulative visitors had surpassed 10 million in June 2024. As a 20th-anniversary project, the company held an open call for original parfait ideas from February to March. Out of 204 submissions, two creations were selected as winning entries and went on sale at the cafe inside the facility starting September 4. Alongside the menu launch, the company announced three age-linked campaigns running through October 6. For example, visitors who were the exact same age as the facility (20 years old) could enjoy the new parfaits at half price (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
The two winning entries received the “Factory Award” and the “Unakun Award,” and both ideas submitted by the general public were commercialized into actual menu items.
Lab Note: What stands out is that the factory incorporated not only publicly submitted parfait ideas, but also the visitors’ own ages directly into the discount conditions. By designing creative eligibility criteria—such as being the same age as the facility or having a combined group age that is a multiple of 20—visitors themselves become part of the anniversary celebration. This design turns an anniversary initiative into a direct motivation to visit in person, rather than leaving it as a one-off campaign.
Casio Computer x Evangelion — Newly Illustrated Artwork by Ikuto Yamashita for a 30th-Anniversary Model
Casio Computer announced that it would release a new “G-SHOCK” model, the “GA-110EVA30,” on October 17, a collaboration watch commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Evangelion television series broadcast. The design features newly drawn artwork by Ikuto Yamashita, the mechanical designer for the series. Motifs such as Evangelion Unit-01’s horn, the Spear of Longinus, and the Angels are expressed across the entire wristwatch. The base model is the “GA-110”—the exact same base used for the very first Evangelion collaboration model released in 2010—and adopts four-color printing for the first time in G-SHOCK history. The price was 37,400 yen (tax included) (Impress Watch (in Japanese), KAI-YOU (in Japanese)).
Around the same time, Casio was also expanding the G-SHOCK worldview inside “The Sandbox.” The company was advancing IP initiatives simultaneously across both physical products and the metaverse.
Lab Note: The heart of this anniversary planning lies in using the exact same base model as the first collaboration 15 years ago while completely refreshing the visual design. When a brand keeps the base hardware unchanged and updates the custom artwork, long-time fans from the original release perceive it as an “evolution,” while newer fans welcome it as a return to the “origin.” Anniversary collaborations with long-running IPs become much easier to design when you separate the continuity of the base product from the renewal of its visual expression.
Artist Collaborations Expanded Brand Worldviews
Shiseido x Sheena Ringo — A Collaboration That Began with “Chirinuruwo” Grew into a Major Initiative
Starting July 9, Shiseido rolled out “Stress Kaihoku” (Stress Liberation Zone), a collaboration campaign pairing its “ULTIMUNE” serum with musician Sheena Ringo. The starting point was the music video for her song “Chirinuruwo,” released in May 2024. Sheena’s team had originally proposed using the “SHISEIDO TechnoSatin Gel Lipstick” in that music video. Following support for her live concert tour, the relationship evolved into this full-scale campaign. From July 10 to 18, Shiseido held a special event at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, and from July through August, the company sold limited-edition kits at five stores nationwide (AdverTimes. (in Japanese)).
The fact that Sheena regularly used SHISEIDO brand products in her everyday life served as the organic starting point for the project.
Lab Note: What began with a single product appearance in a music video grew by the following year into a major campaign spanning music production and pop-up events. We can see a deliberate sequence here: instead of locking in a massive contract from day one, the two sides built up smaller touchpoints first and then judged the appropriate scale. In artist collaborations, leaving room to observe the initial response before designing the next phase keeps the partnership natural and sustainable.
Yurindo’s “The World Only Yurindo Knows” — Videos That Don’t Try to Sell Sold Out 5,000 Sketchbooks in 5 Minutes
Yurindo Shika Shiranai Sekai (The World Only Yurindo Knows), the official YouTube channel of the bookstore chain Yurindo, was never created with the direct goal of selling products. Even so, the channel has demonstrated remarkable promotional power—such as selling out 5,000 copies of a sketchbook planned together with viewers in just five minutes during a livestream. According to the company, products that generate buzz and sell well share three common traits: “there is a story behind them,” “people empathize with that story,” and “there is a sense of trust in the person speaking” (Sendenkaigi (in Japanese)).
The buyers and MCs appearing on the channel reportedly maintained a strict stance of speaking only the honest truth without flattering anyone or holding back.
Lab Note: This is a case where promotional power followed naturally as a result of consistently making “entertaining videos” rather than “videos meant to sell things.” By avoiding the pushy sales tone that corporate accounts so often fall into, Yurindo prioritizes satisfying viewers’ intellectual curiosity. Building trust with fans first—and designing purchases as a byproduct of that trust—offers a valuable blueprint.
Restaurant Chains and Spas Stepped into Fans’ Daily Routines
Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan x Uma Musume — Upgrading “KFC Sanpo” to Permanent In-Game Content
Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan announced its second collaboration with the game Uma Musume Pretty Derby. The company announced that “KFC Sanpo” (KFC Stroll), which was well received in August of the previous year, would return—this time upgraded to permanent content inside the game’s “Uma Sanpo” feature that players can enjoy anytime starting September 9. Alongside the in-game update, KFC announced that from September 9 to 29, it would sell the “Want to Go for a Stroll with Uma Musume Today? Pack” (1,000 yen, tax included) exclusively through KFC Net Order. The company also announced a lottery campaign in which customers who purchased while logged in to KFC Net Order could win prizes such as diorama acrylic stands (Famitsu (in Japanese)).
In the previous collaboration, 101 Uma Musume characters appeared in the feature, generating wide conversation among fans.
Lab Note: The critical decision here was upgrading last year’s limited-time promotion into permanent content that fans can “play anytime.” Rather than ending a buzzworthy initiative after a single run, the companies announced that it would remain as a permanent fixture inside the game starting September 9, 2025. That allows fans to return at whatever timing suits them best. Marketers need an eye for identifying which elements of a one-off event are worth preserving as long-term assets.
Wendy’s First Kitchen x hololive, Gokurakuyu x Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — Dining and Bathing Facilities Teamed Up with Characters
Wendy’s First Kitchen held a collaboration event titled “BAKATARE DINER” through September 21. Its partner was “Bakataredomo,” a unit formed by three talents belonging to the VTuber agency hololive. The chain sold collaboration French fry sets at all locations except racetrack stores. Six designated stores sold collaboration menus with bonus novelty items, and merchandise featuring newly illustrated visuals of the talents in diner uniforms was also made available for pre-order via DMM mail order (Inside (in Japanese)). Meanwhile, super sento (public bathhouse) chain Gokurakuyu, in partnership with GK Marketing, held its fourth collaboration with the anime Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba through September 9. The event featured limited-edition merchandise newly illustrated by animation studio ufotable, five types of themed collaboration baths, and evening-only “Demon” (Oni) menu items (Inside (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Both initiatives were designed around adapting the physical store environment itself to match the characters’ worldview. Rather than simply selling merchandise, they prepared elements that “can only be experienced right there on site,” such as staff-style uniforms and themed baths. That shifts the reason for visiting a location from a mere product purchase to an in-person experience. The more closely a business format is tied to daily life—like casual dining or public bathhouses—the more effective this shift becomes.
Apparel and Railways Placed Characters on Everyday Retail Shelves
GU and Hankyu Railway — Two Companies Placing Kirby Along Daily Commutes and Shopping Paths
Apparel retailer GU announced that it would release a collaboration collection with Kirby (Hoshi no Kirby) on September 12. Incorporating a British-inspired design theme based on the “Kirby Café,” the lineup brought together eight items, including women’s, men’s, and kids’ clothing and a pouch, including knit vests and sweatshirts. Prices ranged from 1,990 yen to 3,990 yen (tax included) (Inside (in Japanese)). Meanwhile, the official Kirby portal site announced a collaboration with “Hankyu Railway” as part of its September merchandise lineup. The collection included plush toys of Kirby and Waddle Dee dressed as train station attendants, “Shushupopo Gokko” (Playing Train) Gashapon capsule toys, and towel handkerchiefs (Inside (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Here we saw the same IP appearing continuously on both clothing racks and railway merchandise shelves. When a character is integrated into everyday essentials—things people wear and carry on their commutes—it naturally catches the eye of general shoppers who may not be dedicated fans yet. The success of an IP collaboration is worth measuring not just by the number of buyers, but also by the volume of everyday exposure it generates among regular store visitors.
Anime IP and Cutting-Edge Technology Created New Participatory Experiences
Toei Animation x Precure — Accompanying Daily Life Through a Virtual Phone Call App
Toei Animation launched official service for the smartphone app Moshi Moshi! Precure Denwa (Hello! Precure Phone). Developed as a joint project with Media Active, the app lets users enjoy simulated phone calls with Precure characters. Basic phone call content is free of charge. With the 330-yen-per-month “Moshi Moshi! Course,” users could enjoy all phone call scenarios with one favorite Precure character along with monthly updated “Morning Call” content. With the 660-yen-per-month course, users could also play a mini-game set inside a café (GameHack (in Japanese), Toei Animation (in Japanese), gamebiz (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: What is fresh here is converting the passive relationship of watching a television broadcast into the everyday action of answering a phone call. The app draws the boundary between free and paid tiers based on the depth and variety of the phone calls: letting users try the core experience for free first, while providing a path for deeper fans to subscribe. For companies looking to maintain touchpoints with characters outside of broadcast viewing hours, translating the relationship into a daily habit is an effective method.
Sanrio’s “Sanrio Creator Performance Awards” — 300,000-Yen Grants for VRChat Creators
Sanrio announced the “Sanrio Creator Performance Awards,” an award program for artists and creators active on the virtual reality platform VRChat. Eligible entries were particle live performance works set inside Virtual Sanrio Puroland. Sanrio announced that it would award a 300,000-yen grant to each of up to three selected works, and also provide an opportunity to showcase the winning works at the next “Sanrio Virtual Festival.” The application period ran from September 1 to September 30 (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Rather than producing every piece of content entirely in-house, this approach hands production grants to fan creators and prepares an official stage for them. By supporting creator activities through grants, the company can gather diverse creative expressions while distributing production costs. For businesses that seriously want to nurture user-generated content (UGC), the idea of offering a “performance opportunity” alongside financial support rather than prize money alone is a helpful reference.
Amplium x LiVS — Recreating the Live Concert Venue in Video for Apple Vision Pro
Amplium, Inc., which operates the “Amplium” platform for Apple Vision Pro, premiered Japan’s first music video of the idol group LiVS shot with a camera compatible with Apple Immersive Video. Using a camera equipped with sensors of approximately 58.75 megapixels per eye (8,160 × 7,200 pixels), the production captured 8K-class stereoscopic 3D video and spatial audio. According to the announcement, the group members were asked to perform while treating the camera lens as an individual fan, and the choreography itself was adjusted with a strong emphasis on physical proximity (Mogura VR (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: More crucial than ultra-high resolution alone is the directorial design of treating “the camera as the fan.” Simply chasing technical specifications does not change the viewer’s experience; true immersion only emerges when the performance side is reworked to match the recording medium. The lesson here is that investments in advanced video technology rarely pay off unless the performers’ movements and staging are designed around it too.
Sharp x QT DIG∞ — Verifying Plasmacluster’s Esports Effects and Signing a Sponsorship Deal
On September 3, electronics manufacturer Sharp announced the results of joint research into the effects of its proprietary “Plasmacluster Ion” technology. The verification experiment was conducted in cooperation with Nishinippon Institute of Technology, with a cumulative total of 10 player participations from the professional esports team “QT DIG∞” participating while playing the tactical shooter VALORANT. According to the company, ADR, K/D, and KDA statistics improved under the test conditions compared with ventilation without ions; players also reported perceived improvements in game-related abilities. On the same day, Sharp also signed an official sponsorship contract with QT DIG∞ (Game*Spark (in Japanese)).
Lab Note: Investments in the esports environment have tended to concentrate on physical hardware such as high-refresh-rate monitors. Sharp entered this space from the completely different field of air purification. By re-verifying an existing proprietary technology within a new competitive community, the company connected the findings directly to a sponsorship agreement. Re-contextualizing a company’s existing strengths to fit a fan community’s needs is a move that can be applied across any industry.
Growing Small Touchpoints into Major Projects
- Morinaga 'in Jelly': Consumer-made felt charms evolved through social media guides and keychains into official retail packaging
- Shiseido x Sheena Ringo: A single lipstick proposal for a music video expanded into tour support, pop-ups, and limited kits
- KFC x Uma Musume: A popular limited-time collaboration feature was announced as returning as permanent in-game content
Preparing Stages for Fans and Creators to Shine
- Sanrio Creator Performance Awards: Providing 300,000-yen grants and a festival stage for VRChat particle live creators
- Unagi Pie Factory 20th Anniversary: Turning public parfait submissions and visitors' own ages into the centerpiece of the celebration
- Yurindo YouTube Channel: Building viewer trust through honest, non-sales videos before co-planning a sketchbook that sold out in 5 minutes
Source: The Oshi Lab’s summary of the article
This Week’s Takeaways
This week was defined not by companies inviting fans into worlds built entirely by the brand, but by companies stepping directly into the everyday pathways and creative habits of fans.
With Morinaga & Co.’s “in Jelly,” a good-luck charm that fans began crafting on their own progressed all the way to commercial product packaging. Yurindo recorded a five-minute sellout through a video channel that doesn’t aim to sell. And Shiseido expanded a collaboration that began with a single music video appearance into a major campaign. In each case, the company did not prepare a massive promotion from the very beginning; instead, it first built a small point of contact with fans and expanded the scale from there. Osaka’s 500 quest locations, G-SHOCK’s metaverse area, and KFC’s permanent in-game content all followed this same progression.
At the same time, in initiatives like Sanrio’s creator awards and Amplium’s immersive video, companies stepped back from center stage and took on the role of showcasing the expressions of fans and creators. As outlined in our Design Principles of Oshikatsu Marketing, before trying to make fans move according to a corporate plan, can a brand discover the places where fans are already moving and the expressions they are already creating? That question marked the dividing line across this week’s corporate initiatives.
Weekly Oshikatsu News brings you a curated summary of oshikatsu and business every week. You can browse past issues in the Oshikatsu x News category.
